chicago a high of 91 degrees there today, but it feels more like 100 with the humidity. it's going to be about 95 degrees in st. louis today. live pictures right there. and we're seeing triple digits in ft. worth, texas, as well. live picture there, we're looking at triple digits and that's without the humidity. >> i can remember it being dry. i can remember it being wet. but never this dry, never this hot. >> how hot is it? hot enough to history. june was the hottest month on record in texas in more than a century. today is the 18th straight day of triple digit temperatures in dallas. the nation's midsection is baking. >> factor in the humidity levels it's going to feel like it's 107 in chicago. 1 10 in sluice. 116 in omaha. it feel feel like 1005 in oklahoma city. >> the forecast calls for hotter temperatures in oklahoma city

than in tucson. there's no relief. not even at night. >> it's not just the highs. it's the overnight lows in the near 80 across much of the middle of the country that can be devastating for people who don't have air-conditioning. >> that's been the situation in parts of chicago where power has only just been restored after last week's storms. >> we worked round the clock to get power back to the customers. >> it's not just the high temperatures that are problematic. >> it's a lot heavier air. slows the pace down. >> on top oof tin crease with the heat costs, now we throw in our elderly who are having trouble breathing. >> the heat and humidity are taking a toll on farms and farm annals. it's forcing texas ranchers to auction off their cattle because their pas amateurs are bone dry. 14% of the continental united states is experiencing the driest six months on record since 18995. stretching from new mexico to the east coast. >> we need some rain very

desperately. >> at least 3/4 of the nation will experience scorching temperatures in the 90s or above. today weather channel meteorologist eric fisher is in lake harriet, minneapolis, one of the cities especially hard hit by the heat. i'm sure one of the concerns is the electricity overload from people turning on their air conditioners and running them all at the same time. >> those air conditioners are going to be humming all across the country. we're here in the twin cities where they're dealing with the heat. america is on fire with this area of high pressure dominating everybody. leading the heat indices soaring past 100 here. down the country and down to the gulf coast now it's stretching off to the east. that's the store toward the middle and later stages of the east. the only way to beat it, head into the water. the water here about 80. that will bring you some relief. we see some folks taking some

safety lessons before hopping into a sailboat on the pier. this is the land of 10,000 lakes. lots of folks in minnesota making it a beach day. in terms of what's going to happen next, we will see some relief here as we head into thursday and friday. most of the country will see no change especially down to the south where the drought persists. texas, oklahoma, triple digit heat. no end in sight even as we look forward to next week. it's a dangerous situation. we're urging even to take it easy. don't do anything strenuous in the midday sun. i've seen people running at here and that's no longer a good day. scotland yard has lost its two top cops to the uk hacking and police bribery scandal. police commissioner paul stevenson and john yates resigned after reports of scotland yard hiring neil wallace as a media consultant. wallace was arrested last week in connection with the scandal. >> i have suggestions that we

must have suspected the alleged no. of mr. wallace in phone hacking. let me say unequivocally i did not and have no reason to do so. >> all eyes will be on parliament tomorrow when rupert murdoch and his son james get grilled by lawmakers. we're live in london. surely rupert murdoch will be asked about the cozy relationship between his news organization and police. >> there's no doubt that he's going to be asked about that and a lot more contessa. this story keeps rolling along. and changing it seems hour by hour. and all points now are pointing towards -- all roads are going towards obviously the murdoch family. that makes four high profile resignations. a few hours ago scotland yard's number two jamesuate resigned again under this rolling impression and increasing public and media pressure. yates if you recall he was the

one who was in charge of reopening the phone hacking investigation back in 2009. he decided not to do so at the time. saying there just wasn't enough fresh evidence. and that as you say on the heels of his boss' resignation last night paul stevenson who was the head of psychologicalland yard. we've seen ten arrests to date and some high profile arrests as well, rebeck ka brooks, the chief executive of murdoch's british media holdings who says it was a complete surprise when she showed up sunday in a prearranged appointment with police and subsequently held for nine hours, questioned and then released on bail. in all of this, contessa, more pressure on the murdoch family. clearly we're going to see 80-year-old rupert murdoch. tomorrow his 38-year-old son james and rebeckka brooks are expected to appear before the committee and answer that barrage of questions. there's questions on david

cameron the british p.m. he's in south africa. today he addressed the phone hacking scandal. he's clearly standing his ground. here's a little bit of what david cameron had to say. >> what the government wants to do here is what i think the whole country wants to do which is to make sure we sort out this issue, we have a proper police investigation, a proper inquiry into what went wrong at news international and news of the world and proper arrangements for the future so that the contact between journalists and politicians is far more transparent than it is today. >> now cameron who had 26 meetings, contessa in 15 months with the murdochs is going to be cutting short his africa trip. parliament's postponed its summer recess by a day so that on wednesday here cameron can begin to answer that barrage of unanswered questions. by the way, news corp. is also feeling the heat. we understand that news corp.'s stock dropped 5% today in australia. contessa, back to you.

>> thank you. casey anthony's a free woman, but her whereabouts are a secret. she walked out of the orange county jail after midnight yesterday. and her attorney jose baez was by her side as she stepped into the night and into a waiting suv. big smile on her face there. that suv drove away that's the last the public saw of casey. according to attorney chany mason that's some of the last we'll see of her for some time. >> i think if you're waiting to see her in court again, you'd better get a rocking chair. as far as all the rumors about paid interviews and books and movies there's been no truth to any of that. nothing has been agreed to in any capacity whatsoever. >> we're live in orlando, are you getting any clues about her whereabouts? >> reporter: not really. she really did vanish. her team here, her legal team effectively did what they wanted to pull off. she left the jail here, got into that suv, drove down the road

right here which was closed off. there was nom news helicopters that chased. but there were a variety of s.u.v.'s out there. when they got into downtown it was sort of hard to keep track of which was which behind the buildings. next thing you know the news choppers lost her in the darkness downtown. then there was at an airport one of the s.u.v.'s had gone. there was a waiting private plane. somebody scurried out of the car into a hangar that looked like a young woman possibly like casey anthony. again, the helicopters at an altitude of over 1,000 feet. then that plane takes off early, early sunday morning destination to ohio. but nothing more. there's no passenger manifest. we don't know if she was on. we just heard mason say they're not going to talk about it. she's not going to surface for some time and he said there are no deals. when you hear stories contessa about a million dollars for ab interview that she's going to be paid, there may be those offers

out there, clearly the attorneys have not concluded that there is a one offer that they are going to take. and when somebody throws around in hollywood a million dollars, unless it goes into an escrow account it might not be a real offer at all. >> so we're waiting to hear more on that side. what's she going to do for money? that leads to my big question today. now that she's free, here's the big question, what are casey anthony's long-term career prospects? you can join in the conversation we're having on facebook and twitter or shoot me an email. moody's credit rating agency is suggesting the u.s. should get rid of the debt ceiling entirely because of all the chaos and uncertainty it seems to create. senator majority leader harry reid and his republican counterpart mitch mcconnell appear to have a similar idea. "the washington post" reports they're working on a back up plan that would allow the president to raise the debt ceiling three times over the next year.

for a photo tal of $2.5 trillion in exchange the president would agree to a $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. and there would be a new congressional committee tasked with finding even deficit reductions. some conservative republicans aren't sold on that. >> the way the deal's currently structured right now. it gives the president the ability to raise the debt limit. >> the mcconnell planl is more of washington not taking responsibility. i'm only going to support something that actually solves the problem. and if we don't solve the problem, not the political problem. i don't care about the politics anymore. >> nbc's kristen welker's at the white house now. what's the white house's reaction to moody's suggestion? >> reporter: hi there, contessa. the white house isn't commenting politicsy yet about the moody's suggestion. we expect they will by the end of the day. they're saying the president is pushing to get a big deal done to get the nation back on its proper financial track.

we can tell you there are two main plans that are emerging. a public plan and private plan. talk about the public plan, the house is going to vote on that tomorrow. it would cut the deficit, cap spending by about 18% of the nation's gdp and also require congress to pass a balanced budget amendment in order to increase the debt ceiling. so house is going to vote on that tomorrow. it is likely it will pass the house. but it's unlikely it will pass the democratically led senate. the point of this is really to allow republicans to get on the record here and say, look, we would like to see a balanced budget amendment if we're going to increase the debt ceiling might help in terms of compromise later on down the road. that private plan that's being hammered out behind the scenes you mentioned it, it's the one that senator mcconnell proposed that would allow the president to increase the debt ceiling in three increments through 2012. they worked on this plan over the weekend along with harry reid and staffers in both of their offices.

it might also come with some cuts about $1 trillion in cuts as well as tax and sbiet element reform commission. here's the question, will it pass with republicans. as you mentioned some of them are opposed to this plan. they don't think it's the right way to move forward. so we'll have to see. it is possible we'll see some legislation on this more private mcconnell-reid plan toward the end of the week beginning of next week. >> thanks. the u.s. women's soccer team is vowing to come back stronger than ever after a heartbreaking loss to japan in the world cup finals. the americans went down 3-1 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie. mid fielder carly lloyd said if anything team had to win she's glad it's japan. and her teammate abbey woman back said it seemed that i can their country need them to win more than ours. newt gingrich's presidential campaign is over million dollars in debt and nearly half of that is from his preferred mode of

transportation. . plus turning the tables on the tsa. a woman arrested for her own pat down. first, a look at what's happening on wall street right now and it doesn't look good. the dow jones industrials slipped 157 points. it looks like the s&p is off almost 18. and the nasdaq compos it is down almost 42 points. almost 42 points. we'll with new olay body collections, be right back.ing fragrances ad olay moisturizing ingredients that transform lathering into lavishing. olay body collections.

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a tire blowout may be to blame for a deadly tour bus crash. that bus was heading to niagara falls when it crashed into a wooded median sunday afternoon on its way from washington, d.c. two people were killed. dozens of others injured. police hope to learn more after interviewing the driver and passengers today. a woman was arrested in phoenix on charges she groped a tsa airport security screener.

police say the woman grabbed the breast of an unidentified, sa employee after refusing to go through a security check point. the 61-year-old continued to argue with officers on the scene until she was finally arrested. now she's facing a felony count of sexual abuse. the good news the carpalageddon was a lot of hype that never materialized. drivers stayed off the highways over the weekend when crews were tearing up part of the 405. work crews earned a reported $300,000 bonus because they finished 17 hours early. they have to repeat that experience next year to do the other side of the highway. we're getting a good look at not only how much money the 2012 candidates are raising, but how they're spending it, too. "the washington post" show mitt romney's report is setting up his campaign like a business and hiring a lot of political consultants and security guards. ron paul is spending his money

on burgers, barbecues and farmers market. and newt gingrich appears to favor the finer things. his financial reports show a campaign more than a million dollars in debt. half of that spent on luxury charter jets. msnbc political analyst karen fin yi also worked as the democratic national committee spokesperson. matt louis is a senior contributor for the daily caller. good to see you. what can you tell about a candidate by the way he or she spends money? >> i think you can tell a lot. if you look at mitt romney you have a disciplined businessman who's running the campaign that way. the organizations that he fronted that were allowed to take dc he got accustomed to a certain lifestyle, when you run

a campaign that is out the window. it's not about raising money. it's about netting money. having money set and left over to spend. i think, gingrich's people blamed the consultants, but again, you know, if you're going to run for president of the united states, the buck stops there. this could be a hiccup or a bump, but it is an issue. >> it may be hard to go to donors saying can you donate half a million dollars i need it to pay back the private jet company. interesting how some candidates spend the money too as soon as they get it? president obama has most to have $46 million he's raised. he's got $37 million on hand. tim pawlenty has half his $4 million. and he's paying apparently more for staff salaries whachl do you make of how fast it comes in for how fast it goes out? >> they call that the burn rate. for those candidates like paw leapty who are showing lower amounts than someone like romney who can afford to actually spend on infrastructure as well as

events, it's not surprising that most of pawlenty's money is probably going to staffing concerns. he may get to a point where remember john mccain got to this point this was is way he was able to survive. he cut all of his staff to reduce expenses and focused money on the actual campaigning. pawlenty may get to a point like that. there's that balance between how much you raise and how much you spend and what you're spending it on and whether or not that's a good expenditure. >> pawlenty is coming in behind ron paul on the fundraising totals. we have a graph that shows where everybody's ranking. the president's coming in first. then mitt romney. a distant second. a distant third ron paul. and in fact, ron paul, pawlenty and michele bachmann are sort of in this heat for third place. yet ron paul has raised more money than michele bachmann, matt, but michele bachmann is getting way more attention, why? >> look. ron paul raised a lot of money last time.

there are a lot of dedicated donors out there who are true believers. they go online and vote. that's why he wins all these online polls. they donated a lot of money to him. i think michele bachmann everybody knows has a much better chance of winning and winning iowa. let me say something about the real problem that tim paw lenty faces. this is very serious. this is a guy who was perceived as being a front runner early on. he has his major problem. it's sort of a catch-22. it's this, you can't raise money until you show that you're doing well in the polls. you have to spend money to do well in the polls, which means you don't have money which means you have to spend money. it is a vicious cycle. >> speak of money, according to "usa today" only one in five elite gop fundraisers who backed mccain have given any money to the 2012 republicans. there's still money on the sidelines there. good to see you both, thank you. >> thanks. it's the stuff movies are made of, but it's real life. the girlfriend of a ceo found

dead in his mansion. and just days later his son dies, too. plus take a look at this -- an suv flies off a highway and lands on a taxi 20 feet below. we'll tell you what happened. you name it.

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that elevated highway. it landed upside down on the cab. the taxi driver was okay. in fact, everyone survived the crash although some of the injuries of the people many the suv were serious. police are still investigating but say the suv driver passed a breathalyzer. a milestone of sorts in london. the city's first ever backward running competition. 30 racers had nothing better to do than compete on a one kilometer course. people who love backward running say it's not as dumb as it looks. it looks pretty dumb. they claim it's more efficient that has a workout than regular forward running and helps you develop a sense of humor because of all the people that are making fun of you. some people are hoping that this becomes an olympic sport. pipe dreams, baby, pipe dreams. casey anthony might be a free woman, but she still has some legal problems. why some say her life will be harder than o.j. simpson's after his acquittal. nearly 1/3 of the country is

baking. we just had in an update from msnbc.com roads in oklahoma buckling because of the heat. caught on the web today, hottest search on google today, ivanka trump she has a new baby but isn't announcing the name of the newest addition to the trump dynasty. they're happy to publicizehe name of baby number four, the first girl. harper seven. now they're tweeting out pictures of little baby harper. how posh. lester holt's getting some buzz for answering his own question in an interview with justin timberlake and mila kunis. >> i'm thinking it's about two people who want to be a veg friendship but get together for sex? >> for someone who's out of the game knows what he's talking about. >> justin timberlake and mila cue nis are getting more attention for accepting invitations to the marine corp.

ball than for their latest movie. >> marines got balls. >> they do. >> semper fie has been replaced by marines got balls. >> we want to pay honor to our country and embrace their balls. >> the latest celebrity to get an invite to the marine corp. ball the always trendy betty white. >> i would like to take betty white. she's just funny. she's sweet. she's mature. she's the all around perfect woman. i really think that we'd have a good time. >> maybe she'll give them a repeat performance from her film "the posal" if she goes.... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all.

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welcome back to msnbc on this monday. i'm contessa brewer.

general david petraeus handed over command of forces in beganston today. he takes over as cia chief. bp is cleaning up another oil spill. this one in alaska. a pipeline burst during a pressure test. up to 4200 gallons reportedly were spilled. nelson mandela celebrating his 93rd birthday today. 12 million african school kids sang to him. president obama sent birthday greetings. the final harry potter movie con injured up some magic at the box office bringing in more than $168 million. making it the highest grossing opening ever. unbelievable. also unbelievable is this brutal heat wave. it grips the nation's midsection today. millions of americans are sweltering in oppressive heat and humidity and no relief in sight. >> the heat you can deal with, but the humidity makes it hard

to breathe. >> weather channel meteorologist todd sans to is tracking the heat wave. as i said, a minute ago msnbc.com reports the roads are buckling now in oklahoma. >> we've seen this at least a few times even throughout portions of minnesota so far this year. it's a big area of the country it's not just under heat advisories which are something to take seriously. excessive heat warnings through all these areas in the darker brown shading from dakotas. we're talking 16 sates where you talk about the heat and humidity combined. in some cases the heed indexes to 110 to 120. not the actual temperature you're finding outside. the effects on your body of the heat and humidity combined. here's a look at what the heat index or feels like temperature is right now in omaha 99. a few areas through wisconsin the little bit of relief is going to come from the showers. you think of it, you put water on the ground that evaporates later in the day and adds to the humidity across the area.

a few heat indices across texas. there's a look at the actual temperatures outside. we will slowly see the heat building eastward over the next couple of days. not too much relief in sight. >> did you want to give me an update about tropical storm bret? is it bret or better? >> it's bret. there's a look at the storm. it's off the northern bahamas tracking off to the northeast around five miles per hour. 50 miles per hour storm expected to remain a tropical storm. at least for the near term. it will likely increase some of the surf along the beaches. later in the week it may be more of a concern. beyond that the east coast it's a high wave threat and rip currents as well. >> appreciate that. casey nnt ice's out of jail but has a lundry list of legal troubles ahead. we have an attorney that represented mary cay letourneau. the thing is that casey anthony is out of jail here.

but she is not in the clear in terms of her legal challenges. she's supposed to be in court tomorrow for a deposition. do you expect her to show up for this deposition about the gonzalez case? >> if she does it would be a miracle. i think that she has a lot of obligations coming up with the courts, but they're asking for a stay in that. of course, she's appealed for lying convictions which means she has a fifth amendment right not to incriminate herself in that civil case. >> why do they both we are the deposition trying to haul her back into court for that? >> with the fifth amendment she has to show up and assert the fifth amendment privilege. there's certain things that might not be protected. they basically want to get this case on the road because of the delays with the criminal case. but the appeal just extepided that privilege for another year to two years. >> if she doesn't actually show up in court tomorrow to say i plead the fifth, will there be consequences? >> i mean yes and no. the fact of the matter is her

lawyers have sought a stay. it's not a criminal case. it's a civil case. so there's certain sachss in a civil case that aren't criminal in nature. she wouldn't be arrested, things like that. the fact of the matter is in something like this, she's going to have some more time, the lawyers will fight for her, she wants to vanish without a trace, i would think for now. >> so far she's managed to do that. we don't know where she is. i wanted to ask you about her prospects. your former client faced a lo of criticism in the court of public opinion after her relationship with a 12-year-old student later -- she ended up having a couple kids with him. she didn't shy away from the limelight. she talked to -- to the media. she went for it and sort of embraced the story that followed her. is that going to be casey anthony's only chance of making money if she dives in and braces the story? >> mary cay letourneau she

embraced it. she workeds in a law firm. with casey anthony is she going to come out with a book? is she going to tell us what happened? people want to know what happened. that's mie people are pursuing her. they want justice. that's part of what's being sought what really happened. tell us what happened. finally with o.j. there's three things in life that are certain, death, taxes and karma. i think people are waiting for karma with casey anthony. >> good to see you, thank you. >> we've been talking online about casey anthony's prospects for earning a living. ryan smith writes she shaz two choices start over in a low paying job or just cash in as much as she can and hire security. a post says she has no career. who in their right mind would hire this person? red bird 45 tweets enough with casey anthony. move on. if you'd like to share your

opinion you can. a stunning $12 million mansion near san diego has turned into a house of horrors. police are investigating the gruesome death of a 32-year-old woman found naked, tied at the wrists and ankles and hanging from a ball cony. police say the scene looks suspicious. just days earlier a 6-year-old boy, her boyfriend's son fell down some stairs there and died a few days later. we're in core nado, california, tell me about the guy that owns that house. >> the man owns this house is the ceo and the founder of a pharmaceutical company in arizona. he's a multimillion dollar businessman and a doctor. he was not at the home when his 32-year-old girlfriend's body was discovered here at the house. police say that her hands were bound behind her back. her feet were tied together. it appeared as though a rope had been around her neck.

investigators say they got a 9-1-1 call from the victim's boyfriend's brother joses when he came out of the home early wednesday morning, he saw the woman hanging from the second story balcony. he said he cut her down and then called investigators. investigators have not ruled if her death is a suicide or a homicide. as you mentioned they said that this home looked very suspicious when they were gathering evidence. they say in all of their investigators they have some 200 years of homicide investigation experience. they said this scene was quote, bizarre. something that they've never seen before. now after all of this just a few days before this happened, jonas' 6-year-old son who he has a son with an ex-wife fell down a set of stairs here. he was critically injured. a as a matter of fact over the weekend just -- investigators

say right now there is no connection. it's still very early in their investigation. but right now no connection to the two deaths. >> thank you. commuting the death sentences for 714 prisoners could help california close its multibillion dollar budget gap. should there be a death sentence for death row? plus president obama wants a big deal on the debt ceiling. he might not get it. why a top washington insider says it could be his own fault for sitting on the sidelines. every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of siemens

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i'm andrea mitchell. coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," president obama taps former ohio attorney general to run the new financial protection agency. he will officially announce thanom nation at the top of the hour. we'll be joined by elizabeth war the lady who helped create the

agency. why isn't she taking the job in. plus, we'll have more on the et debt showdown. and helping america's wounded warriors. gary sinise is joining us with ways you can get involved. in politics when you're trying to sway someone's opinion or change someone's mind, you can appeal to the bottom line. you make the money argument. that's exactly what death penalty opponents in california are doing. they're proposing a bill to do away with executions because the death penalty costs too much. $184 million in that state every year for the court air peels and incarcerating those inmates, plus the death row convicts typically die of old age rather than lethal injection. some of the most infamous inmates include scott peterson who murdered his wife. richard ramirez nicknamed the night stalker responsible for at least 14 killings. and richard davis who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old pollee

class in 1993. mark class is polly's father and low rain lohr's twin sons have been gunned down in a drive bishooting. does the money argument about how much it costs to sustain the appeals process, to keep death row inmates on death row does it influence at all your opinion about the death penalty? >> thank you for having me on, but let me say that this is nothing measure a cynical attempt by the california legislature to undermine the will of the people and to subvert the law of the land. there are very easy fixes that could streamline and push this process forward much more quickly. for instance, in california we have more than 170,000 practicing lawyers. however only 100 lawyers or less than 100 lawyers are qualified to handle death penalty appeals. this creates a backlog of a decade before they first get

those appeals to the california supreme court. secondly, a state amendment could -- a constitutional amendment could very easily create an environment for the state court of appeals would be able to hear devaluate penalty reviews with the subsequent review by the supreme court in kale currently only the supreme court can hear these kind of reviews. >> low rain, the murders of your kids still at large. nobody knows where they are. at this point when you're talking about justice and whether the death penalty brings families closure and the justice they so deserve, do you think that the cost argument should sway at all the argument about the death penalty? >> yes, contessa, it plays a large role in violence prevention. i think that the more than $4

billion spent since 1978 on the death penalty could have been better spent on violence prevention on helping grieving families like myself, and also on putting more law enforcement aufrszs on the street in our community. >> you know, it's interesting that people are making the cost argument now in california. i should mention that there's not a lot of optimism that they will be able to overturn the devil penalty in california based on the cost argument. but what do you think? do you think that this is a topic of conversation that needs to be brought up in more states that currently support the death penalty? >> definitely. i'm thinking of the mothers. i'm thinking of the fathers. the children, the grandmothers what are taking care of children left behind. the pain and suffering that comes along with watching someone on death row is morally, ethically and spiritually wrong. the end does not justify the means. what you have is the government and taxpayers paying lots of

money to watch someone be put to death in the end. and the dead person knows nothing. it's the families that suffer. it's the taxpayers that suffer. >> mark, i wanted to bring you in before i have to close in. in a personal way do you think that seeing your daughter's killer executed would bring you more peace, more closure than currently you feel? >> absolutely. this guy deserves to die as do the entire lineup, the entire 714 individuals on death row. i want to reiterate this is not a moral or a spiritual argument that's being made. this is a financial argument. and it's a very cynical one. >> my thanks to both of you. thank you. >> thank you. side bar now, and today we're talking about just say no. republican presidential candidate hermann cain wants americans and communities across the usa to have a right to ban mosques. on fox news sunday cain told

chris wallace it's not about discrimination. >> i owe it to the american people to do this because terrorists are trying to kill us. yes, i'm going to error on the side of caution. >> the d.c. based council on the islamic relations is saying no to cain. rudy giuliani's urging fellow republicans to say no to gay politics. the former new york city mayor was in new hampshire when he passed on some political advice so other conservative candidates. >> the republican party would be well advised to get the heck out of people's bedrooms. >> that advice could win him some support, but it might ail nate other comforts. we'll watch to see if republicans just say no to the president's pick to head up the new consumer protection agency. he was tough on the financial agency. cracked down hard when he was ohio's attorney general. and he's close to the president's advisor, elizabeth

warn you are who's made enemies on wall street for her instance on more regulation. what the senate needs to do to confirm him. we'll be right back. [ jerry ] i'm a grandfather, a retired teacher, and i count on social security. here's what i'm not... a pushover. right now, some in washington want to make a deal cutting the social security and medicare benefits we worked for. with billions in waste and loopholes,

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his budget director says president obama is still pushing for a big deal to solve the nation's debt dilemma. my next guest says the president may have lost his shot at getting that deal because he sat on the sidelines in the early days of debt talks rather than taking his case to the people early and often. in fact, some go so far to say obama looks like a man being dragged into church by a firebrand preacher named eric cantor. good to see you today. >> thanks. >> so the president often does these sit down interviews. he has a variety of media outlets who cover his every move. he does all these press events.

we saw two presidential news conferences last week alone. whey do you think that the president is not being loud enough and talking enough about his plans? >> there's a difference between talking and communicating effectively. i don't think the president has done the latter at all well on the debt limit and deficit issues and more generally on the range of domestic and foreign policy issues that i write about. if you look at the debt limit question, this has been coming at the white house in slow motion for many months. last year i can remember asking officials close to obama why don't you get out ahead of this? it's obvious the country feels strongly about it. the tea party was growing in strength. the president has encouraged bipartisan commission to look at these problems. and yet the white house kept it at a distance. i think there was a feeling that

it was politically dangerous. when the white house finally got involved in the negotiations initially it was vice president biden not the president. even now you have the feeling the president is waiting for the konl shl leadership to present him with proposals rather than making his own and leading the country. >> is this a style issue? is it just to the president -- >> no. >> okay. >> i think it's a substantiative issue. president obama clearly is a reticent, somewhat dry personality. that's part of his appeal. the key we see with so many presidents now, the key to leadership is to find a way to speak over the washington debate to the american people and connect with them about the issues they care about. that's what the president has to figure out how to do. >> good to talk to you today. thank you so much. it was an interesting column. >> thank you. >> thank you for watching today. i'm contessa brewer. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. k89 a.m. out west. up next "andrea mitchell reports."

hi, thanks so much. up next on "andrea mitchell reports," we'll talk to elizabeth warren about what's next for the consumer watchdog agency that she will not be leading. plus the uk hacking scandal reaches scotland yard. we'll get the latest from london and talk about possible legal imp occasions at home. and will rick perry be running in 2012. gary sinise is here to talk about his most important role about his most important role helps the military. for a drink that's just the way you like it. make it yours. make it mio. for a drinkso i takeust the way one a day men's 50+ advantage. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry !

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," only two weeks to the debt ceiling deadline. do you know what your congress is doing to prevent a default? treasury secretary tim geithner on cnbc still optimistic today that a deal can be reached in time. >> this is a complicated place, washington. people are moving closer together. you've seen the leadership of the republican party many the senate and the house